In preparing the Pandects, the compilers met very frequently with controversies in the writings of the jurists. Such questions, to the number of thirty-four, had been already determined by Jus tinian before the commencement of the collection of the Pandects, and before its completion the de cisions of this kind were increased to fifty, and were known as the fifty decisions of Justinian. These de cisions were at first collected separately, and after ward embodied in the new code.
For the purpose of facilitating the study of the law, Justinian ordered Tribonian, with the assist ance of Theophilus and Dorotheus, to prepare a brief system of law under the title of Institutes, which should contain the elements of legal science. This work was founded on, and to a great extent copied from, the commentaries of Gaius, which, aft er having been lost for many centuries, were discov ered by the great historian Niebuhr, in 1816, in a palimpsest, or re-written manuscript, of some of the homilies of St. Jerome, in the Chapter Library of Verona. What had become obsolete in the com mentaries was omitted in the Institutes, and ref erences were made to the new constitutions of Jus tinian so far as they had been issued at the time. Justinian published his Institutes on the 21st No vember, 533, and they obtained the force of law at the same time with the Pandects, December 30, 533. Theophilus, one of the editors, delivered lectures on the Institutes in the Greek language, and from these lectures originated the valuable commentaries known under the Latin title, Theopkili Antecessurts Paraphrasis Grcica Institutionum Ccesarearum. The Institutes consist of four books, each of which con tains several titles.
After the publication of the Pandects and the Institutes, Justinian ordered a revision of the Code, which had been promulgated in the year 529. This became necessary on account of the great number of new constitutions which he had issued, and of the fifty decisions not included in the Old Code, and by which the law had been altered, amended, or modi fied. He therefore directed Tribonian, with the as sistance of Dorotheus, Means, Constantinus, and Johannes, to revise the Old Code and to incorporate the new constitutions into it. This revision was completed in the same year ; and the new edition of the Code, Codex repetltw prmleetionis, was con firmed on the 16th November, 634, and the Old. Code abolished. The Code contains twelve books sub divided into appropriate titles.
During the interval between the publication of the Codex repetitn Drcelectionis, in 635, to the end of his reign, in 565, Justinian issued, at different times, a great number of new constitutions, by which the law on many subjects was entirely chang ed. The greater part of these constitutions, were written in Greek, in obscure and pompous language, and published under the name of Novellm Constitu tiones, which are known to us as the Navels of Jus tinian. Soon after his death, a collection of one
hundred and sixty-eight Novels was made, one hun •red and fifty-four of which had been issued by Jus tinian, and the others by his successors. .
Justinian's collections were, in ancient times, al ways copied separately, and afterwards they were printed in the same way. When taken together, they were indeed called, at an early period, the Cor pus Juris Civilis; but this was not introduced as the regular title comprehending the whole body; .each.volume had its own title until Dionysius Goth .ofredus gave this general title in the second edition -of his glossed Corpus Julie Civilis, in 1604. Since that time this title has been used in all the editions of Justinian's collections.
It Is generally believed that the laws of Justinian were entirely lost and forgotten in the Western Empire from the middle of the eighth century until the alleged discovery of a copy of the Pandects at the storming and pillage of Amalfi, in 1135. This is one of those popular errors which had been handed down from generation to generation without ques tion or inquiry, but which has now been completely exploded by the learned discussion, supported by conclusive evidence, of Savigoy, in his History of the Roman Law during the Middle Ages. Indeed, several years before the sack of Amalfi the cele brated Irnerius delivered lectures on the Pandects in the University of Bologna. The pretended dis covery of a copy of the Digest at Amalfi, and its be ing given by Lothaire II. to his allies the Pisans as a reward for their services, Is an absurd fable. No doubt, during the five or six centuries when the human intellect was in a complete state of torpor, the study of the Roman Law, like that of every other branch of knowledge, was neglected; but on the first dawn of the revival of learning the science of Roman Jurisprudence was one of the first to at tract the attention of mankind; and it was taught with such brilliant success as to immortalize the name of Irnerlus, Its great professor.
Evan at the present time the Roman Law, as a complete system, exercises dominion in every state in Europe except England (though not all of Conti nental law comes from it. Poll. & Matti. xxxvi). The countrymen of Lycurgus and Solon are governed by it, and in the vast empire of Russia it furnishes the rule of civil conduct. In America, if is the founda tion of the law of Louisiana, Canada, Mexico, and all the republics of South America. As to its influ ence on the common law of England there is great diversity of opinion. The subject is too large to he considered here. It bas recently been treated in detail by Holdswarth (Hist. of Engl. Law).
See. Cons ; DIGESTS; INSTITUTES; NOVELS; BASILICA.